The Ligue 1 title race is a tight one at the moment. There are four teams with the possibility of lifting the trophy. This is the closest title race in recent years since Paris Saint–Germain have dominated the league with the help of their owner Nasser Al–Khelaifi and his Qatar Sports Investments company. With three league matches left here are the four teams with a chance to be the Ligue 1 champions this season.
Lille
Throughout the season Lille has been a consistent team in the League 1. They have been at the top of the league and have surprised everyone with their style of play. Lille are currently in first place with 76 points and one point ahead of second place PSG. There next match is a difficult one as it will be a derby.
Lens will be there next rival in the Derby du Nord and it will not be an easy match. At this moment Lens are in fifth place with 56 points the same as Marseille who are in sixth. Rennes comes in seventh place with 54 points. All of this means that Lens must win to keep that fifth spot. No doubt Lille will have their hands full in this encounter.
Things got heated during the week when Gaël Kakuta made some claims prior to this match. He said that he would prefer PSG to be champions rather than their bitter rivals Lille. Indeed, this will motivate Lille even more and will try to hold on to the top spot when they visit Lens on Friday.
Paris Saint-Germain
PSG are the heavy favorites every year as of recent to lift the Ligue 1 trophy every year. However, this year they are facing some competition in Lille who have not deflated and are holding firm to the first place. The Parisians are currently in second place with 75 points and will try to claim the top spot.
Definitely PSG will go all out when they face Rennes on Sunday. The capital team come from being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday against Manchester City. For this reason, they will put their focus on this match to get a step closer to the top spot.
In order to keep their title hopes alive they might be without their star forward Kylian Mbappé. He did not play in their devastating exit of the Champions League semifinal game due to tightness in his right calf. Obviously, this will be a huge loss for PSG, but they have the players to replace him for this match. No doubt it will not be an easy game for PSG as Rennes will try to win to maintain their European hopes alive for the next season.
Monaco
Monaco sits in third place with 71 points and still have title hopes with three remaining games. With this in mind they need the top two teams to drop points and for them to defeat Reims in an away match this coming Sunday. Reims are in 11th place, so they have nothing to play for and will not be a threat unless they plan to sabotage Monaco and end their title hopes once and for all.
Last week Monaco suffered a huge blow in their title hopes when at home they lost to Lyon three goals to two. That was a key match that they needed to win to still be close to the top spot. Nonetheless, Monaco still have hopes to climb up the table even though they are slim.
Pietro Pellegri and Willem Geubbels will be unavailable for this match after both players were shown the red card in the last minutes of their previous game against Lyon. No question this is a must win game for Monaco if they still want to have a chance to compete for the title.
Lyon
Lyon stayed alive to still be in the title race after last week they defeated Monaco in an away match. That win helped them reach three much needed points and now have 70 points to sit in the fourth spot. However, three players of their team got sent off which are Maxence Caqueret, Mattia De–Sciglio, and Marcelo.
With this in mind, it will be interesting to see how Lyon will line up for their next match. Although, they have a decent team and if they want to still be in the title contention, they must find a way to replace these three key players.
However, Lyon needs some big help and will need the other three teams on top of them to drop points in order for them to have a real chance of making a late title push. Crazy things have happened in soccer before so this is something that can definitely occur.
Amazing Title Race
This campaign we will finally see a tight title race in France after PSG as taken the previous titles in an easy manner. It will not be the case this season as four teams have legit title hopes and PSG are in danger of losing their title to Lille. Lille control their own destiny as they need to win their three remaining matches and will not depend on other results to be the new French champions.
All in all, this is something refreshing to see as PSG will need to win there three matches and hope Lille slip and drop some points in their remaining three matches. No doubt everyone’s eyes and attention will be in the Ligue 1 as finally PSG are being contested domestically for the title.
